Prolonged dry spell has already raised forest fire risks to extremely high levels in 34 provinces throughout the country, officials have said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Forest Management Department lifted the fire risk to Level 5 - the highest – in 13 provinces that have seen little rainfall, high temperatures and low humidity during the past days.

Twenty-one other provinces have also been warned about the high risk of forest fires, at Level 4, the department said.

The department on March 1 detected dozens of fires across the country and asked local forest managers to examine whether they were forest blazes or residents’ slash-and-burn farming.

Also on March 1, the steering committee for forest protection, fire prevention and control dispatched an urgent note to People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to instruct their forest management branches to keep a close watch on fire-prone forests and stamp out any blaze to curb its wide spread./.